


Her name was Tilliwar.

by Domoz



Category: Critical Hit (Podcast)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-05
Updated: 2014-05-05
Packaged: 2018-01-22 00:58:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1570091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Domoz/pseuds/Domoz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Torq had a family, we assume.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Her name was Tilliwar.

In the north there was a tribe of Orcs- for their kind relatively peaceful

(That is, they tended to raid for necessity and not for sport).

So they lived. And, as sometimes happened they were attacked.

But it was not a normal attack at all- usually they expected a rival tribe or a smaller group of adventuring types but on that day it was an army. They fought as hard as they ever had but lost to the sheer numbers of them all.

 

And those humans, in their cruel way, spared the youngest and the oldest and one half-orc who was carrying a child from dying in battle. Those humans captured them, called them prisoners of war and sent them in cages far to the south. Why, none of them knew.

 

And as they went farther and farther south they found that those guarding them were getting fewer and more lax- so they started planning, to escape, or to die trying.

The night before they planned to escape, that child was born. As they were, they could not name him. As they were all they could do was quiet him and wait until the morning.

 

And on that morning they escaped- most of them. As tough as they were and as hard at they fought they were still outnumbered and out-weaponed. By the end of only a few were still standing- one orc woman looked down and saw the newborn there- still breathing, still on the back of his slain mother. So she took him, and walked up the road.

Her name was Tilliwar.

-

The first town they found was called Moonhold, and that was where they stayed, first squatting and then all of them sharing a one room house.

(They knew, all of them, that they wouldn’t survive the trip back home, especially not with a war on)

They lived like that, quietly and uncomfortably and hoping some grand fight would come before the end of their days.

The child began to grow, and grow fast. But even as he was able to walk and as they began to teach him how to fight rarely spoke a word. He still didn’t have a name- and they argued about this- some of them argued that he couldn’t have one until he killed his first beast and the others argued that if he’s going to be living among humans, he needs to have a name like one.

So they caught the largest rat they could find, handed him an axe, and when he killed it talked among themselves, saying “We’ll name him after his father- Torqel. But he need a human name too so long as he’s here”

And they decided on some human who in stories had killed thousands of men and used that for the name.

“Your name is Halston Torqelson” ,they told him ,“bring pride to it, make people fear it”

And the boy looked down at himself and mumbled it but around his under-bite could only say “Torq”

But he had his name, and that was that.

-

He has trouble speaking around his teeth. And he can’t speak common without a thick giant accent- he can’t speak giant without a common accent either. He confuses the words between the two, and he struggles with it constantly. So it takes him a long to to phrase the question. He asks Tiliwar why his name is different, and who, exactly, are is parents (because he’s seen that other kids have them).

She makes sure that the others can not hear her and then tells him.

She tells him that he has a different name because he is different, because he’s going to live in this city, in a different way from all of them and his parents died living the way they did and not to concern himself with them.

-

The night after that the oldest of them announces that he’s leaving, to go find a battle to die in, as is his right. The others all nod and the boy- Torqelson silently stares at him as he goes.

He’s been calling this man his uncle, because that was the only way to explain it that made sense.

That was the first of them to leave.

-

They all feed into this boy as many stories as they can about how it was back then, how much better it was to live up there and how the way they’re living now really isn’t a way to live at all.

(To them, he is their last hope. He can go back north, they tell themselves. He can keep the line alive)

 

He grows and listens to them and considers this, but he doesn’t to buy it all all. He starts to think that maybe its not their life, but it is his. He’s alive just fine, and if all that fighting is so important, well he gets in a fight with some other kid in the street at least once a week. Anyways, as far as he knows its the only way to live.

-

They leave, one by one- too proud to admit that they’re dying but doing it all the same.

And his Aunt Tilly watches Halston watch them leave.

She says to him, ‘you have to do how humans do, you have to support yourself here, you know’

He nods and she’s able to work out around his teeth that he wants to join the constabulary here. (He doesn’t say to her that he wants to do it because those are the people who do the Right Thing. None of his aunts or uncles approved of thinking like that).

 

And she knows that he wont get a job like that without some convincing to do, so without saying she walks into that constabulary, walks by all the weapons that are drawn at the sight of her right up to the table and tells the man there that she needs to have a word with the boss. She tells them that there’s a boy, you can call him Torq, that needs a job. That he’s not too bright, but he’s strong and he’ll do what you tell him as long as he gets paid and yes he does have horns but to be honest you need a big scary guy like that here, anyways.

So like that, Torq gets his job.

-

He knows they think he’s dumb, and that they can hardly understand him and that he’s getting stuck with the worst work they have to offer him. But the job offers enough chances for him to use his axe (left to him by an uncle) to take out his frustrations and pays enough for him to live on.

And he’s proud of himself. He’s doing the Right Thing- he’s not even sure where, in all of his life, he picked up that idea- but he’s helping all these people, even if they don’t trust him to.

-

When his Aunt Tilly dies she doesn’t go away like the others. One day she can’t stand from her bed, and she calls him over and says to him, “Don’t go out like me, go out fighting. Live up to that name and make them fear you”

Halston Torqelston bows his head and leaves that house and never goes back.

(He doesn’t want fear. He’s been surrounded by fear from those aunts and uncles his whole life. He doesn’t know what he wants from people, but he knows its not fear)

-

The next year Torq turns sixteen. He lives in the tiny barracks room in the constabulary and still gets stuck with desk jobs and does what he’s told.

And one day this stick thin guy with pointy ears comes in asking for help. And Torq helps him because it is the Right Thing to do.

And then the moon comes crashing down.


End file.
